Dragon Eggs

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I took Dramkon to the vet a few weeks ago for a well-dragon check-up. She rode there in a Tupperware box in my bicycle basket. She did not like this. She expressed how angry she was at me for putting her on a bicycle by hissing at me. (which my ordinarily well behaved dragon never does). As we sat together quietly in the waiting room at the vet's office, she calmed herself down and unruffled her scales. Her blood tests came-up odd and she was acting a little funny. I was quite worried about her. The vet started her on antibiotics and told me very strictly to keep her within her ideal temperature range. A few days later she started laying eggs. "Aha!" says the vet, "that explains it!" It's the first time I've ever seen her lay eggs. She got really restless after that. She wanted to run and dig and climb everything in sight. Up and down the space heater, under the bed, up the back of the computer and down the front, through the living room and the kitchen in laps... all day long. I wanted to give her freedom, so to accommodate the vet's temperature request, I chased her around the house with a heat lamp for nearly two weeks.

She has now laid 16 eggs, mostly in the digging box we set-up for her. She looks very tired today. She walked over to her food dish this morning and has spent the whole day lazily munching on chunks of carrots and zucchini.

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Water Testing

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I have three tanks right now for the fish and newts. The tanks have been named Hogwarts (up high on a shelf), Winterfell (has a chiller in the tank), and Atlantis (furthest tank from my computer). It's important to make sure the creatures are healthy and happy so I've started keeping data on the water quality in the tanks. This means each week I test for: Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Hardness, Chlorine, Alkalinity, and pH. I chart the data in a spreadsheet. Believe it or not, the first time Arthur and I started doing this it was a date night activity. My husband is awesome.


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Redwood Chapel

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On Sunday, our friends Aidan and Sarah got married in a grove of redwood trees with a ceremony that referenced Zeno's paradox. It was a beautiful wedding.

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My Household

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After celebrating Passover with my extended family, my mom mentioned to me that some of the guests were giving me funny looks when I kept talking about newts at dinner. I hadn't noticed. Since college things like, the parasitic fish that live inside the digestive tract of sea cucumbers, have seemed like normal dinner conversation to me. So when people ask me what's going on in my life and I start talking about newts... well you get the idea.

Since starting research for the comic book, I've adopted some new creatures as extant behavioral models. This means that besides my usual gardening and chores, I'm something of a zoo keeper. Here's a picture of my current household.

Dramkon - She is my 4 year old bearded dragon. She eats crickets mostly, but we share a salad for lunch. Today it was pea shoots. (Pogona vitticeps)
Script - He is our 5 month old baby ball python. He eats mice. Dead ones, thawed. We keep the frozen mice next to the frozen strawberries in the freezer, I haven't confused those two. Yet. (Python regius)
Newtron - An adult paddletail newt. He eats worms and likes waggling his tail. He currently lives above my desk. (Pachytriton brevipes)
Proton, Electron, and Quark - Three juvenile firebelly newts. They are our newest arrivals, they also eat worms. They are quite playful and use their tails to swim around their tank. (Cynops orientalis)
Burrow - A centipede. He lives in a tupperware box next to my bed and eats baby crickets and fruit flies. My friend David brought him for me as a birthday present. I think he likes the home I made for him because he's nearly doubled in size in the three weeks he's lived with us. (Lithobius forficatus)
Macro the Minnow and Friends - Four minnow's live in the tank that will become Newtron's permanent enclosure. They eat rainbow colored fish flakes and dart around rocks. The way they school, it looks like they are playing tag. (Tanichthys albonubes)

Since the creatures eat mostly live food, my grocery list usually includes worms, crickets, and flies. And, it's a legitimate concern that I try not to get tubifex worms in the controls of my Wacom tablet when I'm feeding Newtron late at night.

Santa Cruz, CA
4/19/12

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Art of Nature Gallery from GNSI-CA

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The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History is hosting a group show of art from the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators, California Chapter (GNSI-CA). The featured artists include: Krista Anandakuttan, Nina Antze, Cecelia Azhderian, Lee Boerger, Sondra  Cohelan, Emily Coren (Me!), Cheryl Crowley, David Fierstein, Cissy Freeman, Megan Gneko, Jaye Hays, Erin Hunter, Jessica Huppi, Eliza Jewett, Jenny Keller, Molly Keller, Kathy Kleinsteiber, Glenda Lee Mahoney, Jenny Parks, Logan Parsons, Anne Ranlett, Diane T Sands, Ann Scott-Chambers, Kate Spencer, Karen Talbot, Ioana Urma, Sophie Webb, and Kevin Wiseman.

If you're anywhere in Northern California, come check it out!
http://www.santacruzmuseums.org/exhibits/current/index.htm

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